Enviro Windsor, does anyone have a PDF to the original brochure?

You really should try a few bags of Okanagans or the like. I think you will see a radical difference in not only the performance of the stove, but the clean up and build up as well.

Thanx for the info Chris! My brother had a Harman pellet stove and got rid of it because he said he could feel the cold draft with so much air movement plus it dried out his house really bad.. He told me he had it hooked up with an OAK too.. You mentioned the stove gets pretty hot on top by the diffuser, maybe you can place a pan of water on top to enhance the humidity a bit? You being a hearth.com member who had a woodstove knows about using box fans etc. and that may help heat the more remote areas in your home..

On another note, after running a CDW cat stove for over 20 years and now running a T-5 I would take this stove anyday! I feel this stove is more efficient and capable than my large CDW stove.. It recovers quickly when you ned fast heat as well and is so easy to learn and operate! I just used the butterfy top and opened it to reheat a few slices of pizza and they came out awesome in 10 mins! I placed them on a piece of foil and they came out crispy! I would consider that free heat as they stove was running for heat anyways If you have a chance to see a T-5 in action check them out.. You would also be amazed how quiet and effective the blower is too.. You would love the great fireshow that a secondary burn stove provides.. While I like cat stoves there is no comparison to the view of a secondary burn stove.. It even puts a campfire to shame lol..

Just thought you'd be interested in hearing about the T-5.. Glad to know you and your family are doing well too!

Hang in there!

Ray

Ray,
The stove does dry the place out badly. The top doesn't get hot enough to really add too much humidity. I tried my cast iron kettle on the top and the water was luke warm the next morning. Plus, I'm afraid of ruinning the enamel finish on it. I am thinking about the resale value as I would like to try something bigger eventually. I do want to try some little doorway fans throughout the house to see how much of a difference it would make. As I said, there is a huge difference between standing just outside the cold bedroom as opposed to inside. I tried a small fan blowing the cool air out, down on the floor, all it did was cool off the hallway dramatically, making the rest of the upstairs cool.

I do enjoy hearing about the T5. I can't believe how well iy is doing compared to the CDW. I would like to check one out in action. I bet the secondary show is awesome! My Windsor flames are like a torch. I lile the unpredictability and soothing subtlety of wood fire flames.
I love the sliding trivets on your T5, I checked them out at the stove shop once, they did not have one going though.

So I wanted to check in since it has been a while. I'm very happy with this stove overall, it has heated the house very well with little pellet consumption. We had a one ton delivery on January 18th, thirty days later we've burned 37 bags. This means @$4.14/ bag we spent $153 dollars to heat the house for the last 30 days! Of course, the mild weather has certainly helped. Next season I will be more equipped with some better fuel in order to be able to handle the really cold months, which we really haven't had this year. I must admit, I sort of lost count of how many bags we burned before that, as we were buying pellets on a weekly basis, but it was about a ton I would say give or take a few. I wish I kept a count of how much was consumed before the 1/18 delivery. I would say 4 tons will do for next year though. I will have to keep an eye from now until the end of the season in order to have a better idea. The last 13 bags will get us up to March. So I'm looking for a good deal on a ton which should just about do it if the weather stays mild.

It sure has been a lot easier than using wood. Although, I still miss my wood stove I am thankful to be able to heat the house with pellets. Sure beats having the oil truck come over once a month!

Hi Chris! Sounds like the pellet stove is working OK for you! I like the idea of temperature control that a pellet stove does well plus the storage is much easier. You also have the advantage to just buy pellets when you need them unlike wood which you buy a year or 2 in advance. I would think that creosote would be a non-issue as well with all the air that stokes the pellet fire. Wood has the advantage to provide heat and a cooking surface in the evnt of a power outage plus can be found everywhere. The other plus is woodstoves are simple compared to a pellet stove. Enjoy the mild winter!

Ray

VCBurner,

I think you will see vast improvement with the heat output and cleaning schedule once you switch to higher quality pellets.

Also, I know the screwdriver is working on the burnpot clinkers but I find a Painters 5-1 tool works great. It is stiff enough to act like a wide chisel and has a flat end and a pointed end to dig into anything that is really stuck on. I lay my burn pot on my back deck railing and scrape and chip the clinkers away. Just takes a few minutes.

If you have been burning the Inferno's all year you are really going to need a full tear down cleaning at end of season. You will be surprised how much crap will be stuck to the combustion vent path.
Compressed air and spray carburetor cleaner will be your new best friends.

Best of Luck,
---Nailer---

Glad that this has been a good experience for you Chris.

Some Cord wood burners have a lemon year and get a bad taste in there mouth about pellet stoves.

Having a good stove and a good maintenance schedule are vital to the stoves operation. You had both. Glad this has been a good year. Once you get your hands on some good fuel.... Look Out!! ;-P

Hi Ray, yes I'd say it's working well and doing the job. We went out yesterday around 4pm (to the Monster Jam @ the DCU in Worcester, what a blast!) and came back today at 8:30pm (28 and 1/5 hours) and the stove was still going! It was on the lowest setting and was just about to run out when we got home, but I think it would be hard to find a wood stove that could match that! Maybe one of those Blaze Kings. Wood stoves will remain a fond memory for now as well as a labor of love! But rest assured that as soon as possible, I will have a wood stove in my home. I can also say that pellet stoves have cemented a place in my home, a combination of the two would be great, maybe two tons of pellets and two cords per year? For now it'll be just a wish, one that I'll keep close for when we purchase a home. How is your beautiful stove working out? I'll have to check your threads to see if you've been reporting anything new! Take care, happy burnings!

Chris

PS: BTW, I spent the night at the inlaws where the Encore was nicely heating the house, I'll post some pics on the Encore thread!

Hello Nailer, I can't wait to put some really good fuel in it and see how well it'll do. I know it will be lightyears away from the Inferno mess and low heat production.

The screwdriver I use is a big standard one and I turn it sideways to get the edge into the crust on the pot. I also keep a couple of sharp wood chisels on the workbench along with a brush and a round file that fits perfectly inside the holes in the burn pot liner. The attachment you sent me has already come in handy, I use it often to get around the heat exchanger tubes and above the baffle like metal in the upper corners of the firebox. I also used it to get as far as I could inside the combustion blower housing without taking it apart. I plan on another deep cleaning in the beginning of March to see how things are going in the exhaust passageways, etc. The combustion blower will come off then. I have taken the firebox liner panels off three times to get all the ash that collects there. Every time I do it the stove performs much better than with all the ash behind there!

Thanks for posting!

It has been a pleasure. I can't say I don't miss my wood stove, but the ease of burning pellets sure has proven itself. Yes, the maintenance on the stove is more but the load ups are far easier and my wife really likes it, which in turn makes us all happy! She is alergic to all sorts of things and having wood in the house used to cause her some discomfort. So I guess you could say the bad taste is not as bad for me. Of course I miss the ghost flames of the old cat stove and the slow quiet heat I used to get from its convection chamber. But this pellet stove is a good here at this house, the boys don't miss having to haul wood with me, though one of them used to always come out with me when I was hand splitting in the middle of the winter! He just loved to keep me company, he is almost 9 now and loves being with me whenever I do any sort of work. That I miss. The 40# bags are still too heavy for him. He used to carry a couple of logs at a time and play around with a little hatchet! The older two, who are 10 and 11 are a great help to move the pellets into the basement. They also bring bags up into the main floor when I don't feel like running down there.

Overall, I would say it has been a homerun. No parts failures, no problems with heat or consumption. To be honest with you I can't wait for Spring and Summer, camping season is three months away now and baseball season for the boys as well as travel soccer. I coach both, and they are starting in less than two months. Soon the grass will be green and the lawn mower will replace the stove.

Hey Ejectr, drove through Brimfield today, what a nice ride it was mostly back roads all the way up to rt 2. Saw some pallets of Okanagans on someone's yard and remembered your words!

Sounds awesome. Kids are definitely what makes Life worth living.

My Son (10 gonna be 11 soon) is involved in Baseball (Coach), Football (Asst Coach), and Scouts (involved completely). He loves to help me carry in wood and clean the pellet stoves.

Also have an 8 month old Daughter. But she dont help with much (other than pull at my heart strings :lol: )

Glad you like it.... I think more wood burners should give pellets a shot. They would be surprised.

Just saw your post. Welcome to Brimfield. If you traveled the back roads, you probably took Rt19 -67 - 122 - 32 to Rt 2. Those are some serious back roads and definitely a slow boat to China. You were 5 minutes from my house.

VC, does your Windsor have the new Empress door or do you have the "wiggly" glass. The upgrade help the combustion chamber a lot and the glass stays clean on top AND bottom

Wow, great stuff DD, funny you should mention Scouts. I was a scout leader for 3 years and my wife was the treasurer. I still miss it sometimes, but that one hour per week sure does grow very quickly. I now have four boys who would be in scouts if we went back, which I talked about with my oldest son (11 y.o. who wants to join Scouts again) this weekend. He does not want to play soccer anymore but has started playing the clarinet and just landed two parts in his middle school play. He was also the student of the quarter (1st term) and made the honor roll both terms this year. My 10 y. o. son had straight A's firt term and made the principal's list, as well as soccer all stars and band all stars (playing his saxophone.) He got high honors second term but didn't make the principal's list because he had one B. Our 8 y. o. Max, made the soccer all stars in the fall and was the highest scorer on his team. He also did really well in his indoor soccer academy, where they got to meet Diego Fagundez, from the New England Revolution, he's the second youngest player to ever score a goal in his debut on an MLS game @ 16 years old. Diego's dad Washington was a goaly coach at the soccer academy. Max really liked him and was often training twice a day in order to do the goaly practice and regular practice back to back. He loves sports and made the cut at try outs for a new travel soccer team this year. I was invited to coach it. He will try out for minor league (spring baseball) this year and should be able to make it. Try outs are in a couple of weeks. My forth son Johnny, is the hardest worker of all on the soccer fields. He turns 6 in two days and goes to every practice no matter who's paying. He practices with the 10-13 year olds with his two older brothers as well as with the 7-9 year olds and his brother Max. If I don't bring him, he cries! He didn't miss one practice this year. One of the days, it was pouring outside and I said, Johnny can you please stay home because I don't want you to get hurt or sick at practice tonight? He refused and was the first one out to the field when we arrived at practice in the rain. Naturally, he is unstopable on the soccer field, often scoring almost at will on his U6 division team mates. He was the highest scorer in his division. He also plays three season of soccer per year. John gets to play for the Rookies division this spring in baseball and is very excited. I'll be coaching that team. Our youngest boy is 9 months old today! He brings joy to my life every day. I have been laid off since May and he keeps me sane and very busy! I wil miss him immensely when I go back to work, which I hope will be very soon.

HaHa! Yeah you're right it was a slow boat. In a 28.5 hour span (4pm Saturday- 8:30pm Sunday) we went from Templeton, to Oxford (to drop off the baby), to Worcester (Monster Jam @DCU Center), back to Oxford (to crash @ the in laws,) to Warren (to visit a friend for diner) back to Templeton. We travelled all the roads you mentioned and then some! The roads were nice and the weather beautiful. We hit an Opossum (the size of a moose) on the way home in Hardwick. Beautiful country those back roads, I felt like I was on Chronicle, LOL!

Chris

I'm not sure. I bought the stove used and it had a gasket all the way around. Upon visiting the Pellet Mill I ran into a couple gentlemen who had no gasket across the top of their door. So I removed the part of the gasket that wraps into the inside part of the glass (across the top), essentially cutting it in half by running a knife down the middle while the glass was already istalled on the door. The glass got dirty faster before I removed that part of the gasket. It used to get dirty a lot faster when the gasket was covering the entire door. I'll have to go by the Enviro shop and take a peak at the Empress to check out the difference now that I am a bit more acquaited with the Windsor.

Is that an upgrade I can do to the Windsor in order to improve it myself? Also, is there a need to lube any of the motors on this thing? Do you have a trick to move a slider damper on this thing, it seems to be stuck! I need a mag to check the numbers on this thing too. I was almost positive it was blowing too hard, which may be a good thing in my case due to the 5' horizontal pipe from the back of the stove to a 90 up 4 feet 45+45 and termination cap.

Sounds like a great bunch. You should be proud.

Some up and coming Soccer stars, huh? Sports and Scouting do take up a bit of time. Some of it can be monotonous (daily football practices in the Summer and Fall) but well worth it when they are winning games and the kids are on "Cloud 9". Scouting he and I both really enjoy. Next year he steps up into Boy Scouts (Weblos now) thats when the fun really starts. Pinewood Derby is coming up the 2nd weekend in March. Last year he took 4th overall and 2nd for his Den. I took 1st for the Parents (we have a little "un-sanctioned" match after the kids.. (I used speed axles last year and Im pretty sure a couple Dads are gonna do the same this year (Oh Well!)....

As for your Baby.. Congratulations. My daughter will be 9 months this Sunday (D.O.B.- 5/26/11). She is amazing. Pulls on my strings already. Also, I've never seen a Baby that loves.to watch a Fire the way she does. Mama Hates it (Dont need 2 Fire Bugs in the house) But I love it.....

Anyways... Glad the Pellet stove has done its job. Next year with better fields and the experience you gained from this season, you should have the Pellet Thing down. Fuel quality is amazing. Difference between burning Poplar or Cottonwood and burning Shag bark or Locoust.

Very good thread. Very detailed. I understand why some Hearth room guys followed you over here (Good read and review). I believe it was Ray who made the comment on the detailed-depth you take into them. Very good write-up and review. These are the types of threads that can make a Cord wood burner see the "Other Side". Not taking away from other threads. But you couldnt burn wood in your New Home and had to find an alternative that would work for your situation. Start to Finish, you did a Great Job.

Oh and Monster Jam is Awesome I dont care if your 5 or 75, anything with that much HP, is Ridiculous! ! ;-P Coming soon to Cleveland. . . See ya

Great your kids are doing excellent! Chris you need to consider finding a job out of the union! If I was out of work that long I'd be bankrupt!! I much prefer a steady paycheck with bennies anyday over being laidoff.. I got laidoff 2 yrs. in a row for about 3 months and I found another job and I actually make more now and still get 4 weeks vacation plus bennies.. I am speaking as a family man that had 5 kids too so I know what I am talking about.. There is no job that is worth that sort of insecurity!

My 2 cents as a friend and family man,
Ray

I wanted to update the thread with a few pics from inside the firebox (behind the cast iron backing panels.) The pictures highlight a very important part of the maintenance schedule of this stove. I find this to be an important place to clean, otherwise the stove is not happy. Particularly the combustion blower. Let me explain:

Once the area behind the liner plates is full of ash the blower is strained. The ashes restrict the exhaust flow and make clinkers appear much faster. How much ash gathers and how quickly, depends on your particular exhaust set up, how much you're burning and of course the quality of the fuel. I can't personally attest to the latter of the three, as I have been burning Inferno's almost exclusively.

I have a particularly difficult exhaust with a 3 inch, 5 foot horizontal run right off the stove and fuel that is known to have a high ash content. But nonetheless, I feel that this area needs to be cleaned more than bianually as the manual states. I have cleaned this area four times since the instal on October 29th. This means, at least once a month is necessary to keep the stove working properly. I am going to try to clean this area twice a month, as I feel this would only increase the life of the stove with less parts failures in the long run. I have heard of people not service cleaning their stoves for 2 years, vent pipes included. I could not imagine having a stove work hard all year and not cleaning the exhaust passageways. My manual recommends cleaning the exhaust vent at every two tons. I would not go more than one ton.

The pictures were taken after the clean up with the panels removed. You can clearly see the square exhaust vent, which is normally hidden behind the panels. One picture highlights the fan blades that can be seen inside the square vent opening. The lower right portion of the firebox is what gathers the most ash. More of the exhaust is sucket throught the larger triangular cut out that can be seen on the top right side of the firebox. The smoke is essentially pulled toward the heat exchanger tubes and the ash falls through the holes in the top corners landing behind the panels. This ash is a lot finer than the ash in the ash pan or the ash that can be found around the burn pot. You can see a crack on the baffle plate. Next time I do this I'm going to take a before and after picture ana one with the panels in place.

I was wondering if anyone has the original Enviro Windsor Bruchure PDF, if so could you please PM me or post a link to it on this thread? I can't seem to find it anywhere...

The actual brochure? Or owners manual? Or technical manual?

Hey Dex,

I have the original owner's manual as well as a couple other PDF's of the manual and service manual. I was referring to the brochure.

Found it!

http://www.naturalheat.ca/brochures/Windsor-Pellet-Brochure.pdf

I have the same enameled model and I paid 2000 in 2005 when it was a demo in a store. Loved that grey color on it. It has burned well since then, occational fickiness when not cleaned so well. No parts replaced so far. I have it in a 2 story condo and it kept it at about 72 on #3 setting. I have it placed at the bottom of the stairs leading to the bedrooms.